Network Rendering Re-Visited

#21

Briefly:

Be aware that there are two areas where tech professionals vehemently disagree:

-RAID formats. Though nobody recommends RAID 0, there is a lot of debate about other RAID options.

-Drive types. Some think SSD’s are stupid for RAIDs (Read/write lifespan, less capacity, pricey). Others think use of HDDs is dinosaur thinking (moveable parts, older technology, size, noise, slower).

My decision came down to this:
-HDD’s are 4x cheaper per TB over SSD
-If I RAID up 6 HDDs w/0 RAID…speed should be good, fully saturating 10GIG network. (we’ll see)

#22

I updated post above with final costs and part numbers.

#23

A rule of backups among IT Professionals that I want to remember & obey, esp. as I go for RAID 0.

Summarized as 3-2-1: three copies of your data, two of them local, and one offsite.

  1. RAID to RAID sync 2x automated daily schedule
  2. Live Cloud BU - automated
  3. Scheduled Monthly local backup to small fireproof safe

For my Mac files…and for other Mac users…it’s possible to have multiple-destination TimeMachine usage.
Link: https://www.macworld.com/article/3313651/how-to-use-multiple-drives-with-time-machine-for-redundant-backups.html

#24

Looks like a well known 3d artist is rolling with the same hardware. Same reasons?

#25

My drives came in today. RAID, Switch…everything else had already arrived. Initial experience with Synology:

-Took me 45 min to unbox everything, get six drives in their bays, etc.

-Took 20 min to do initial software set up and begin configuration.

-System is currently doing a “Parity Consistency Check” As expected this is proceeding much faster with RAID 0 than other formats. I’ve heard this can take 8-24 hours depending on #drives, drive type and RAID option. Looks like it will take couple hours in my case.

-Was a bit nervous when I first turned unit on. Fans were blowing crazy loud. But that lasted just a few seconds. System seems very quiet. Case is solid (metal) and attractive. Plastic bay trays seemed a tad fragile but survived installation.

-System has attractive and sophisticated web interface. Presents everything like a windows or Mac desktop.

#26

When I saw the amt of disk space on my RAID I wondered if something was wrong. 10% less disk space than expected.

After Googling I found this from Synology:

The hard drive size appears smaller than that claimed by the HDD manufacturer because file systems (of Synology NAS or regular computers) adopt the binary definition of storage units while HDD manufacturers adopt the decimal definition.

So it’s a non issue.

#27

In Andrey’s video he says he likes the RAID on his desk. I’m a bit dubious he’ll keep it there. While the fans aren’t loud you still are going to hear the spindles on those HDDs. And with the metal housing the sounds are a bit magnified.

I plan to keep mine in a hall closet.

#28

Very pleased w/first performance tests. This is RAID 0. For comparison I’m posting speeds of a typical budget SSD–which RAID smoked in everything except tiny file transfers.

Synology RAID w/10GBe over network

Syn_RAID0_ATTO
Syn_RAID0_ATTO.jpg544x646 77.6 KB

Typical internal SSD, tested locally

SSD_ATTO
SSD_ATTO.jpg544x646 80.3 KB

#29

Here is the performance of the RAID when connected to Mac via $40 external 2.5G ethernet adapter. Pleasant surprise. Closer to 300 MB per second reads than 2.5.

2_5gMac
2_5gMac.jpg2242x1092 188 KB

#30

I’ve gone back and forth, but have decided to proceed w/RAID 0.

And I will plan as if it will fail… with frequent 3-layer backups. If it goes down a connected drive w/all the same (mirrored) data will be on the ready.

It will be another week or two before I can report on work flow.